Staphylococcus aureus is a human pathogen capable of producing enterotoxins causing staphylococcal food poisoning, one of the most economically important foodborne diseases in the U.S. This pathogen may be introduced to pre-cooked tuna meat used for the production of canned tuna because significant manual handling occurs after cooking of the...
A beta Poisson dose-response model for Vibrio vulnificus food poisoning cases leading to septicemia was used when evaluating the effect of 15°C depuration on the estimated risk of raw oyster consumption. Statistical variability sources included V. vulnificus load at harvest, time and temperature during harvest and transportation to processing plants,...
A Monte Carlo procedure considering the variability in oyster handling from harvest to raw consumption estimated reductions in the number of Vibrio vulnificus induced septicemia cases achieved by high-pressure processing (HPP). The calculations yielded pathogen load distributions in raw oysters from harvest to consumption. In the warm season, 2-6 min...
Clostridium difficile´s presence has been reported in meat products stored typically at low temperatures. This study evaluated the viability in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) of spores from epidemic C. difficile strain R20291 (4.6 log CFU/ml) and M120 (7.8 log CFU/ml). Viability was assessed during 4 months at -80°C, -20°C, 4°C...
About 48 million cases of Foodborne illnesses (FBIs) are estimated to occur every year in the US. These are diseases caused by contamination of foods with bacteria, viruses, protozoa, parasites and toxic chemicals. Clostridium difficile infections (CDIs) are an important health-care and community associated problem. Since C. difficile spores have...
Analytical chemistry is an essential qualitative and quantitative tool to describe foods and biomaterials and their changes during production, processing and distribution. In this work, rapid analytical procedures for the extraction and quantification of components in fluid milk and diatom fermentation broth were developed. Analytical methods to measure the concentration...
Currently the production of biofuel from algae is not economically competitive with petroleum fuel. However, co-production of high-value products may be able to justify the cost of large-scale algae cultivation. The basic goal of this study is to develop a techno-economic analysis (TEA) and Life-cycle assessment (LCA) for the production...